1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interfaces and methods for submitting search queries to web-based search engines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous web sites exist that provide search engines for allowing users to conduct searches of the World Wide Web and other repositories of content. Typically, a user conducts a search by retrieving a search page of a web site, entering a search string into a search box, and then selecting a button for submitting the search string as a search query or request. The search string may be a search phrase in which individual terms are separated by spaces, or may consist of a single search term. The results of the search query are provided to the user on one or more search results pages.
Some search engine sites support the ability for a user to submit a search query by encoding the search string within a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Typically, however, the user must encode the search string in the URL using special formatting that is inconvenient or unnatural for users to type. For example, in some cases, users must add a special string such as “query=” to indicate that a search is being requested, and/or must add special characters to the search string itself. As one example, the URL www.google.com/search?q=mars%20rover may be used to the search for “mars rover.”